Calaveras mascot still holds prominent place

SAN ANDREAS - The Redskins' mascot image rides high at Calaveras High.

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By Dana M. Nichols

recordnet.com

By Dana M. Nichols

Posted Nov. 30, 2013 at 12:01 AM

By Dana M. Nichols

Posted Nov. 30, 2013 at 12:01 AM

» Social News

SAN ANDREAS - The Redskins' mascot image rides high at Calaveras High.

That's deliberate. Many years ago, when American Indian elders informed school officials that it was disrespectful for the feathers in the mascot headdress to be in contact with the ground, officials removed the mascot image from the floor of the school's gymnasium.

Ever since, even as mascots for the Washington Redskins professional football team or the Coachella Valley High School Arabs have been criticized as contributing to racist stereotypes, the Calaveras High profile of a Great Plains American Indian warrior has been in a prominent - and elevated - position on the football field scoreboard and on a wall inside the gym.

And there it will stay, say students, the school principal and even the chairman of the Calaveras Band of Miwuk Indians.

"It's part of this community," said Logan Sullivan, 17, of Valley Springs, a lineman on the school's football team.

Sullivan said that as a member of the school's student council, he's aware that the campus has received letters from organizations that seek to eliminate the use of the Redskins' name. But that sentiment, as far as he knows, does not exist within the campus community.

"We don't do anything disgraceful to the mascot," Sullivan said.

Calaveras High School Principal Mike Merrill voiced a similar view. "We try to be very respectful," he said.

Merrill said that despite periodic national and state-level controversy over the Redskins name, there has never been a discussion about replacing it during his 19 years with the school district.

Calaveras residents are "traditional," Merrill said, and have not made changes to the name or the image used to depict the mascot.

Frequent changes could have resulted in the kind of controversy now occurring at Coachella Valley High School, where the menacing, mustachioed face of the Arab mascot painted on school walls recently drew the attention of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

Coachella Valley, a former date-farming area, historically had a number of Arab immigrants who operated stores and worked on farms. That historic connection inspired the school mascot name, officials said.

The Coachella Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees voted earlier this month to keep the Arab name but to modify the cartoonish, large-nosed mascot.

Merrill noted that Calaveras has avoided such heavy-handed portrayals. "We don't use caricatures," he said.

"I am not offended by it," said Outland, who is a member of the Cherokee Nation.

The use of American Indian-related names for sports teams has a long history of stirring controversy. Critics of the practice say that even if students and officials at a particular school say they mean no harm, such mascots still contribute to promoting stereotypes.

Stanford University used its "Stanford Indian" mascot from 1930 to 1972.

In the early 1970s, Stanford recruited American Indian students from across the United States. A number of those students protested what they saw as disrespectful and racist portrayals, including a costumed mascot who would pretend to put hexes on opposing teams. University officials in 1972 decided to end the use of the mascot.

The state Board of Education in Oregon last year decided that public schools could no longer use team names such as "Indians," "Braves," "Chiefs" and "Redskins." Schools have until 2017 to phase them out.

Most recently, there's been a national discussion about the Washington Redskins. Some newspapers, including the San Francisco Chronicle, have decided to no longer use "Redskins" when referring to the team. And President Barack Obama said in October that if he owned the team, he'd think about changing the name.

This fall, The Record received a written request that the newspaper stop using the Redskins' name, as well as a number of responses from Calaveras High supporters who are proud of the name and want it used.

Record Editor Mike Klocke said he formerly lived in Florida, where Florida State University worked closely with the Seminole tribe to ensure that the Seminoles mascot used by the university was appropriate and respectful.

"The nickname is embraced by the Seminole Nation," Klocke said

Calaveras High School's situation is similar, with school leaders and American Indians cooperating, Klocke said.

"I don't see any reason for us to stop using it at this point," he said of the Redskins' name.

Charlie Wilson, chairman of the Calaveras Band of Miwuk Indians, said he is puzzled that there would be any controversy over the Calaveras Redskins name.

Wilson attended Calaveras High School for a year and participated in both football and basketball there. He's well aware of the school's many traditions related to the mascot, including drumming that goes on all night before each year's homecoming game.

"If you are playing for the team and that is your name, I think you are going to play hard," he said.